As Catholic school enrollments dip nationwide, historic...

1of11Andrew Koenigsberg teaches chess strategies to students after school at Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Houston.Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

2of11Jim Marcely, who teaches chess to students after school at Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School, shows off some of the team's trophies on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Houston. Most of the trophies along the wall belonged to the chess team. The school will close due to low enrollment.Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

3of11Debra Haney, superintendent of Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston Catholic Schools, explains to a group of children that their school, Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School will close, during a class on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Houston.Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

4of11Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School will close due to low enrollment. Photographed on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Houston.Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

5of11Julie Cook looks at her student Christopher Westbrook as they wait to say an afternoon prayer, at Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Houston.Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

6of11Alyssa Dalton, standing, helps Kelis Pickett, 12, from left, Carson Johnson, 15, Richard McColister, 11, and Donovan Payne, 13, during an art class at Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Houston. The school will close due to low enrollment.Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

7of11Julie Cook, center, readies her students for dismissal after a prayer at the end of the school day at Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Houston. The school closed last year because of low enrollment. This week, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston announced it would close four additional schools in Houston and Pasadena.Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

8of11Julie Cook, pictured in May 2019, leads her students in making the sign of the cross after a prayer at the end of the school day at Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School in Houston. The campus closed following that school year, and four other local private schools announced they will shutter this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

9of11Jasmine Reynaud, 8, works by herself after the other student in her class social studies class left, at Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Houston. The school will close due to low enrollment.Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

11of11Alyssa Dalton, who teaches art at four Catholic Schools, teaches seven students at Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Houston. The school will close due to low enrollment.Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Norma Huger noticed a difference in the crowd gathered at a recent Saint Peter the Apostle Catholic School’s meeting.

Usually cheery parents had tear-streaked faces. Teachers and administrators looked solemn. Then, someone said something Huger had not expected to hear: The 77-year-old school, a staple of the greater Third Ward’s Catholic community, was closing its doors at the end of the school year.

“As I sat down, I just felt like I sunk in my seat,” said Huger, whose 6-year-old granddaughter, Karma Rose, is a kindergartner at the school. “I just couldn’t believe it.”

Despite a storied history of academic prowess and an inordinate amount of basketball and chess championships, the small Catholic school just north of Old Spanish Trail between State Highway 288 and Scott Street will close after the final bell Friday, scattering students and staff to other campuses. The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston cited a 70 percent drop in student enrollment over the past five years as the culprit, a drop so large officials said it made little financial sense to keep a full staff on hand to teach just 30 students in grades prekindergarten through eight.

Enrollment numbers are so low, according to the school, there is only one student in the first grade and one in the second.

It is a far cry from the school’s outlook in the early 1960s, when about 600 students took classes at the campus. At that time, Catholic school enrollment nationwide soared to about 5.2 million, according to National Catholic Educational Association.

Since then, the number of students at St. Peter’s and Catholic schools nationwide has dwindled. Fewer than 1.8 million students were enrolled in Catholic schools nationwide this year. Debra Haney, superintendent of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston’s schools, said with the exception of most of the district’s high schools and some other campuses, local enrollments are down overall.

Haney chalks up the declines partly to an influx of charter schools and public school choice options, which often boast more technology and technical programs than the smaller private schools offer at no cost to families. Most parents at St. Peter the Apostle paid about $3,200 annually in tuition, costs offset by grants the church offers families on an income-based scale.

Another factor, she said, was the central tenant of Catholic and other religious schools.

“You have parents who, for a multitude of reasons in our society, faith is not as important as it used to be,” Haney said. “They’re making a choice to not send their children to faith-based schools.”

Community roots

The students at Saint Peter the Apostle look much different than those who first joined the church and school when it opened in 1942.

Back then, virtually every parishioner and student was white, according to the Rev. Faustinus Okeyikam, the church’s pastor. As demographics in the neighborhood changed, so did Saint Peter’s student body.

By the time Toni Marshall enrolled in nearby St. Vincent De Paul Catholic School and attended church services there, St. Peter’s had become one of only a handful of hubs for black Catholics in the greater Third Ward.

Marshall’s godparents taught and coached at St. Peter’s; the campus’ gym still bears her godfather’s name and is adorned with a banner featuring his face. She still remembers fundraising bazaars in the parking lot and passing by the school at night, marveling that the gym’s lights were still on — a sign of the late-night practices that made the boys’ basketball team a force to be reckoned with.

More changes in the neighborhood swept some families out, leaving retired folks as the majority of remaining church-goers. More Hispanic families moved in, and the church began to offer Spanish-language services. Still, fewer families were enrolling in the school than before.

When Archdiocese officials offered Marshall its top job three years ago, she knew about the enrollment challenges. The seriousness of the slide was not apparent until she walked into her new office and saw a chart depicting enrollment trends. A sharp line showed that enrollment had dropped to about 90 students the year before she arrived. When her first school year as principal began, that number fell to 47.

Marshall and Okeyikam began aggressive campaigns to recruit more students.

“We had to try to diversify our enrollment by going out to the neighboring parishes, especially the parishes that don’t have schools within them,” Okeyikam said. “In the past three years, we also extended it to a door-to-door campaign.”

Despite the efforts, only 43 students remained at the end of Marshall’s first year. That fell to 33 during the 2018-2019 school year, and in the past few months, to 30.

A glimmer of hope

Huger’s granddaughter, Karma, came during the enrollment drop. Despite the low number of classmates, the 6-year-old grew to love the school.

Even as she toured another school in May, she told her grandmother she could not wait to get back to her classes at St. Peter’s.

There is a chance that, one day, Karma could return. The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston is looking into converting the school building into a faith-based vocational school for high schoolers, a model pioneered by a campus in Philadelphia. Marshall hopes to work with local Catholic school leaders to create a plan to open the new school “some time soon and not too far away.”

For now, Karma and most of the remaining 30 students have found new schools to attend, searches aided by Marshall’s weekly newsletters that broadcast openings and application information for other local Catholic schools. Marshall also worked with her teachers and staff, offering to make personal calls to other principals to set up job interviews. Many will go to St. Mary of the Purification, located two miles away. While that campus may be close, it will not be the haven Marshall, Karma and others have come to love.

“It’s been a special place to me. I look in these rooms now, and it’s just so interesting because hearing that it’s closing. It’s just like …” Marshall said, “I can’t believe it’s actually closing.”

Shelby Webb is a suburban education reporter for the Houston Chronicle, covering trends across districts in Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Brazoria counties. She previously worked as an education reporter with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida from 2013 to 2016 and attended the University of Florida.